From everything I could find, he was an exceptional soldier, and an exceptional man.

Felix Sparks received Two Silver Stars for his actions in WW II, but the men and women of the Colorado National Guard felt he deserved the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in saving 3 wounded GI's , recounted in this article

Sadly, that honor was not obtained for Brig. Gen. Sparks before his death.

Brig. Gen. Sparks was also with one of the first units to liberate Dachau, and is remembered for halting the killing of the surrendered SS soldiers at the camp, as you can see recounted in his own words here

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Friend Kat over at Yikes! is once again having her annual card drive for Christmas cards for the troops.Her post over on her blog says this:

OK, folks, it's officially official -- Operation Love from Home begins now! Last year, thanks to all your hard work and commitment, 20,000 cards were collected and shipped to Iraq & Afghanistan!!! How awesome is that?! LET'S DO IT AGAIN THIS YEAR -- I KNOW WE CAN!!! :) All the information is below, and I've attached a pretty, printable flyer. This is a great project for scout troops, businesses and other organizations to get involved in tangibly showing support for our troops. The troops can't see the yellow ribbon magnets on our cars...but they CAN hold a letter or card in their hand and KNOW someone back home REALLY CARES! :) Please forward this email to anyone and everyone you think may be interested in participating, post the info on message boards, and see what you can do to get others involved. Not one of us can achieve this on our own...it will take us all working together to make it happen.

Hang on - we're in for a wild ride. :) This is going to be GREAT! :)

OPERATION: LOVE FROM HOME

During this holiday season, let's show our troops we love and support them!

From OCTOBER 1 to November 24, I will be collecting holiday cards for troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Being away from home and living in harsh conditions during the holiday season is especially difficult ~ they need to know we have not forgotten them! Mail from home helps to keep our troops' morale strong, making a very real difference in their lives.

The cards can be handmade or store-bought. This is a great opportunity to get your Scout troop, school, church and other civic organizations involved in doing something to show support for our troops.

If you wish to send an email greeting,which will be printed off and mailed along with the holiday cards, please send an email to: LoveFromHome@Gmail.com

*IMPORTANT GUIDELINES: This is not a "dating service" of any type. Please do not send suggestive or otherwise inappropriate cards or materials. Please also refrain from making political statements of any nature. I will be reading and screening every card received to ensure that the above guidelines are adhered to. Remember: This is strictly to let the troopsknow that we love them, we are proud of them and that we HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN them!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Welcome to this week's installment where all the member bloggers of Wednesday Hero collectively honor many of the real hero's found in this country who's names and bio's have been provided to us for these humble tributes by blogroll creator Indian Chris @ Right Wing and Right Minded.

Many of them are those that have paid the ultimate price for our country protecting it both here and abroad from the many threats we face from our enemies wishing us and them harm, some are not. In either case they are the real American heroes of today and we now both salute and offer our prayers. To join us if you wish to please start by reading the post below.(Introduction courtesy of Chicago Ray )

Hippocrates once said, "Art is long, life is short". Cpl. Jeremy David Allbaugh lived a short life. But, he was immortalized recently in acrylics by a Lance Cpl. Jamieson who painted a mural in his honor.

"I feel sad because it is for him, but it makes me happy because I can still do something for him," said Lance Cpl. Jamieson. "I thought about it during the ceremony in the chapel. I looked up at the stained glass windows and I thought 'I should do something like that'".

Along with help from family, a fellow Marine and a Morale, Wefare and Recreation manager, Jamieson had the paint and tools needed. "I would paint eight or nine hours in the gym and time would fly by," Jamieson said.

Cpl. Jeremy David Allbaugh, 21 years old from Luther, Oklahoma, was killed by a roadside bomb on July 5, 2007 while conducting combat operations in Qaim, Iraq.

"He believed very strongly in what our country's doing," said his mother, Jenifer Allbaugh. "They were doing good things over there, and we don't see that in the news or media. There's a lot of progress being made. I wish more people would talk to our boys who are in it and not our politicians because they see it firsthand".

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

The passing of yet another member of the 'Greatest Generation', particularly of someone who was a survivor of the USS Indianapolis tragedy, I think deserves a bit more of a mention than I've seen thus far.

If you don't know the story of the sinking? The Wikipedia entry is worth a read. Briefly, on July 30, 1945, the ship was struck by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine and sank within 12 minutes. 300 men died in the initial explosion, 900 men went into the water....and rescue was delayed for 4 days.

The USS Indianapolis was the ship that delivered the atomic bomb that was later dropped on Hiroshima.

Of the 900 men who went into the water the day of the sinking? 321 were picked up when they were finallly rescued, with 317 ultimately surviving.

Tom Goff, at age 100, was the oldest living survivor of the sinking. He was a Marine, one of only 6 or 9 survivors (I've seen different numbers on the actual Marine survivors) of the ship's 39 Marine detachment on the day of the sinking.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Welcome to this week's installment where all the member bloggers of Wednesday Hero collectively honor many of the real hero's found in this country who's names and bio's have been provided to us for these humble tributes by blogroll creator Indian Chris @ Right Wing and Right Minded.

Many of them are those that have paid the ultimate price for our country protecting it both here and abroad from the many threats we face from our enemies wishing us and them harm, some are not. In either case they are the real American heroes of today and we now both salute and offer our prayers. To join us if you wish to please start by reading the post below.(Introduction courtesy of Chicago Ray )

The love of Megan Ewens's life arrived at Arlington National Cemetery on July 7, 2006. His ashes inside a small wooden box, the box inside a coffin, the coffin draped with an American flag and carried on a caisson pulled by six black horses.

Lt. Forrest P. Ewens had shipped out for Afghanistan in March of that same year. His wife, being the same rank in the Army, understood the risks, telling a colonel at Fort Drum, N.Y., that if anything happened to her husband, she didn't want to hear about it from a stranger.

On June 6, 2006 Lt. Ewens and Sgt. Ian T. Sanchez were killed when ATV struck an IED while on combat operation in Pech River Valley, Afghanistan.

A few weeks before his death, Lt. Ewens called his wife from an Afghan mountain to inform her that his unit had been subsisting on melted snow and rations and that he had been writing his impressions down in a notebook he carried.

"This was the love of her life," Megan Ewens's mother said. "They were so well-matched and made such a good team. We couldn't ask for a better son-in-law."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

(I'm not really in a position right now to contribute financially myself, but wanted to pass this along....let's get the word out on the web for these folks,huh? As a nurse, I've seen first-hand the devastation that Huntington's Disease wreaks on those suffering from it. Kudo's to this couple, who met Sgt. Portillo's widow and decided to make this walk.)

And lastly, this is a post by the father-in-law of a recovering wounded Marine, I've featured posts from this blog previously, but it awes me, that this gentleman would take the time in the midst of all that is going on with his family right now, to urge others to adopt a soldier.

I helped out on research for about 21 Fallen Heroes in the past several weeks, and it's definitely true that,as they say "this is an emotionally strenuous team to be on." I have at times just felt immersed in sadness, when you read the stories of so many fallen soldiers at once.

Fortunately, there are some awesome team leaders on that team, who never fail to send an encouraging word ,it seems, right when you need it most. And, even though I made several mistakes along the way as I got started in helping out with this team, I've received nothing but encouragement from other team Members,too.

While I'm biased,lol, and think that All Angels most definitely 'rock'? There are some extremely special ladies on the LL Team, for sure.

Anyway, that's what I've been wrapped up in lately.

Plus, I've also had some doctor's appointments, and will be having some minor outpatient surgery in the first part of October. Nothing serious, but just another thing to add to the calendar of our busy lives.

Which Are going to be busy. Daughter April has been in practices for a musical show that we'll go to see this weekend. We've been going to meetings at the school for her Hawaii trip next spring. I've started going to a Bible study group once a week.

We've heard from our MP that he'll be deploying sometime in November, and Hurray! he will get some leave time to come home before he goes:)

And I guess that's enough 'family stuff' :) In addition to everything else that's going on, I found time to watch the HBO show "Alive Day"

and I highly recommend that you take the time to see it. The wounded veterans that they interviewed for this film are amazing people, and their stories are incredibly sad,yet also inspiring.

Some of the names of the veterans seemed familiar (which means I may have sent cards to them at some point as part of the Soldiers Angels Wounded TLC team )but one person I didn't realize was going to be part of the show was someone who had sent us a note of thanks for cards we had sent to he and his family.

You may remember back when I posted that I had received a handwritten thank you note from a wounded veteran?

well, to see him on that HBO show, talking (and joking:)..... let's just say that first of all I made the rest of the family come in and see that this was the man who had sent that very special note, and second of all, I viewed a lot of his interview through tears of joy mixed with sadness. Joy that he had come so far, and sadness for all he had lost. But mostly joy....that someone who wasn't even supposed to be sitting there at All, had come so Very far.

----------------

In other news? our area made the National news again, but not for something I think is very commendable.

it's generous people like all of you who made that possible!! So, a big Thank You! to all those who contributed to Josh's fund, and also to World T.E.A.M. Sports

(who,you may remember, sponsored the Face of America Bike Ride.)

The reverberations from that one event (the Face of America Bike Ride) continue. I received an email from Steve Danyluk that it's possible that a Book may come out of his participation in that bike ride.

A Marine, a Reporter and an Unlikely Story Told Together

It was war. For Marine Lt. Col. Steve “Luker” Danyluk and Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner. The two were in Iraq together in 2004, but their paths never crossed until they got home and rode a bike ride in 2007 with veteran-amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan and their able-bodied supporters. Jackie crashed. Steve left the ride to make sure the comatose reporter, broken but intact, made it to the hospital. Their friendship was solidified. Jackie had already been saved once by the Marines when they rescued her from a kidnapping attempt outside of Abu Ghraib prison in June 2004. The daughter of a Vietnam veteran, she had a special affinity for those who served—without offering a political viewpoint of the war itself--and became known for her “soldier stories” told from the battlefield.

The two have now collaborated on a unique project, showing the photographs taken by Purple Heart recipients themselves when they were deployed in the war zone and their stories. Steve, whose own photographs are on display at the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, plans to photograph the recipients. Jackie will write a short narrative of each. Together, they will collect the photographs of those who served, putting together a special book whose proceeds will be entirely donated to wounded veteran projects.

A Marine and a reporter.

That is what makes this book unique, unlikely, a friendship between a Devil Dog and a reporter from The Washington Post who spent 13 months in Iraq, embedded sometimes, living with Iraqis for much of the other. Their viewpoints are completely different. One was in uniform on two separate ground combat tours and the other disguised as an Iraqi woman, slipping anonymously through society and yet grateful to be with American soldiers on assignment, a fellow American, an infidel, a target to insurgents because of the passport they shared. Her Iraqi staff called the troops “brothers,” and she felt it, deeply, regardless of any political opinion, able to remain objective and report on the war, wherever it took her.

.........Both of them were deeply affected by their experience in Iraq. Each, in their own way, has spent numerous hours trying to make personal sense of that experience. Jackie writes. Steve discovered a latent talent for photography. He took more than 2000 photographs while in Iraq. Currently, he has a batch of photos on exhibit at the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago,(www.NVVAM.org) and you can view some others at www.ipics4ivets.com if interested.

......Their vision is a coffee table book, "Iraq/Afghanistan through the Eyes of the Wounded". Steve will take a current black and white head shot or full-body photograph of the veterant; Jackie will write a 300- to 500- word narrative on the troop’s experience in-theater, post theater, homecoming--whatever it is that the veteran most wants to convey. That will be accompanied by four to six pictures that the veteran took himself or herself while deployed. The book would encompass the works of 18 to 24 veterans.

(The authors plan to donate 100 percent of any proceeds they earn from the book to wounded veteran projects).

-----------------

I am hopeful that this book will come into being. Be sure and click on the links in the article above, to find out more.

And the photo exhibit referred to also has pictures taken by Eric Edmundson , another wounded veteran frequently mentioned in this blog, who has upcoming good news of his own....a "Key Presentation" ceremony on the home being built for he and his family by Homes for Our Troops , on Oct.6. Congratulations! to Eric and family.

And I also need to pull together the weekly "Soldiers Angels Web Surfing' feature, I've been monitoring the updates I receive from Google,etc. for that, and there's lots of good stuff going on by and about Soldiers Angels that's worth passing on!

so, it either seems to be 'famine or feast' on this blog,lol, as far as my posting.

But, just stopping in to try and catch things up, and to say Thanks! to all those who continue to stop by here and read!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Welcome to this week's installment where all the member bloggers of Wednesday Hero collectively honor many of the real hero's found in this country who's names and bio's have been provided to us for these humble tributes by blogroll creator Indian Chris @ Right Wing and Right Minded.

Many of them are those that have paid the ultimate price for our country protecting it both here and abroad from the many threats we face from our enemies wishing us and them harm, some are not. In either case they are the real American heroes of today and we now both salute and offer our prayers. To join us if you wish to please start by reading the post below.(Introduction courtesy of Chicago Ray )

Richard Ramey always knew what he was going to be. Once, while in the third grade, his teacher asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. His response? "I’ll go to war and fight"

Concerned by his answer, his teacher called his mother, Julie Ramey. She told her "No, that's my son".

SSgt. Ramey was killed when insurgents attacked his and other convoys in Mahmudiyah, Iraq.

"Richard loved to do his job. No matter where it would take him," said his mother. "He really felt deeply that he wanted to protect people that couldn’t protect themselves"

In a statement released through Fort Knox, the Ramey family said, "He was adventurous and smart, combining both qualities in what he did for the Army. We knew his work was dangerous but also knew he wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else".

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

A Chinese couple, heading home to Beijing after almost a year of visiting their daughter and son-in-law here in the US. Dying together, as they had been for 35 years of marriage, on American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11,2001.

Yuguang Zheng,65, was a retired chemist, and his wife, Shuyin Yang, was a retired pediatrician. They had one son, Shidong Zheng, of Nagano,Japan and one daughter, Rui Zheng, of Baltimore,MD.

Their daughter wrote a beautiful tribute to them on their Legacy.com page, that you can read in it's entirety here

"They were very loving and affectionate, although they had quite different hobbies and personalities. The husband loved painting"I found a picture of one of his paintings

that his daughter had posted on the Washington Post memorial website HERE where she said,

“My father started Chinese painting about five years ago. Most of his paintings depict peaceful scenes, accompanied by small living creatures. These features capture my father: quiet, peaceful, but full of vitality.

Rui Zheng, daughter

She also said of her father

"To his children, he was a special father because he made you feel the love from the bottom of his heart, even though he didn’t speak a lot."

About her mother,she said:

" His wife was an active, open-minded and kind lady.She loved to try every thing that was novel to her, even though sometimes it was a little risky. Besides, she liked cooking and was very good at it. Those who had tried her cooking loved her and her food."

On another Washington Post memorial page HERE , I found this picture of a gift her mother had given her daughter and son-in-law

and Rui Zheng said of it:

“My mother gave my husband and me this Bodhisattva Guanyin [a Buddist goddess] after our marriage. The Bodhisattva Guanyin hears the cries of the world and responds with deep care to those in need. Guanyin is also believed to bring happiness, give love and take care of people. That’s how my mother lived her life.”

Rui Zheng, daughter

She also said of her mother

"Definitely, the most important thing about her was that she was a good mother. She listened, accompanied and did her best to comfort her children whenever they felt upset and frustrated even after they grew up."

Rui Zheng's remembrance of her parents continues on to say:

"To both Yuguang and Shuyin, family was the most important thing. They loved each other and their children..........For their family members, the only thing that provides relief is knowing that the devoted couple was together all the time, even at the last minute of their lives.............What they left behind for family members and friends are the loving memories of them. "

Yuguang Zheng and Shuyin Yang (or,as I saw in some postings,Zheng Yuguang and Yang Shuyin) loved deeply, and were deeply loved.

They left behind other loving family members, as I found in this article here (from the China Daily) The article mentions Yang Shuyin's older sister, Yang Shuzhen, who is also a doctor, in Changzhou of east China's Jiangsu Province and Yang Shuzhen's daughter, Chen Wei, the niece of Zheng Yuguang and Yang Shuyin.

Chen Wei traveled to the US on behalf of the Chinese members of the families of Yuguang Zheng and Shuyin Yang for a memorial service held at the Pentagon shortly after their deaths.

And, at that service, Rui Zheng took some earth from the Pentagon, which she later buried in a cemetary in Beijing because she "wanted them to rest in peace at home."

Last year, Rui Zheng was invited to be a keynote speaker at the first memorial service held for the foreign victims of 9/11 in Washington. She went, Rui said, because

"It is an opportunity for me to let more people know my parents, who were loved by their families and friends."

--------------

I pray you rest in peace, Yuguang Zheng and Shuyin Yang. And I will now hold your children, family, and friends in my prayers and in my heart,whenever I remember September 11th,2001.

(This post is part of the 2,996 Project which began last year to honor and remember those who lost their lives on 9/11 )

-------------------------

Update: December 2008

Yesterday, I was able to visit the Pentagon Memorial, and touch the benches with your names, and pause to remember each of you.

(although the picture I took did not capture it, your husband's name is listed along with yours, on the plaque over the water......as is the reverse on your husband's memorial bench. So, I was able to remember both of you together, and the memorial had a wonderful sense of peace and calmness about it. )

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Welcome to this week's installment where all the member bloggers of Wednesday Hero collectively honor many of the real hero's found in this country who's names and bio's have been provided to us for these humble tributes by blogroll creator Indian Chris @ Right Wing and Right Minded.

Many of them are those that have paid the ultimate price for our country protecting it both here and abroad from the many threats we face from our enemies wishing us and them harm, some are not. In either case they are the real American heroes of today and we now both salute and offer our prayers. To join us if you wish to please start by reading the post below.(Introduction courtesy of Chicago Ray )

Sgt. Partridge was killed by an IED that exploded near his vehicle in Baghdad, Iraq.

There isn't that much information about Sgt. Partridge so I though I would share some of the memories that his friends and family have of him.

"I remember Partridge from basic training and AIT. He was a very quiet guy who had a good sense of humor. I remember asking him why he joined, and he told me it was so he could take care of his family and give them a better life. I would have deployed with him any day, he was one of the good guys I graduated with. He will not be forgotten. God Bless."

"Todd was one of the best men I have ever met and I will always have great memories and admiration for him! My thoughts and prayers go out to his family!"

"I will never forget you and those awful eighteen weeks at Fort Leonard Wood. You are in every sense of the term, 'A HERO'"

"Todd was such a quite, solid person. He never demanded the attention of those around him. I remember him always just smiling while everyone else at our LARGE FAMILY get togethers made noise. I could get a hug from him, but I had to ask for it. He never assumed anything. I loved making him hug me. Todd was a solid, faithful husband, father and man in every respect. He did what had to be done in all areas of his life. He died doing what he knew to be his job in this life. Not that he wanted to die but he wanted to serve whatever the cost might be. He knew that freedom is not free and wanted to pay his part for that freedom for himself, his wife and girls. I have nothing but love and respect for Todd's memory and will always proudly and thankfully count him among my nephews that adore. His memory will always be honored. I thank God that He brought Todd into our family. He left his mark on it just as he did everywhere he went."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. To find out more about Wednesday Hero, you can go here.

My 'movable meme' post, supposed to show up on Fridays according to my self-imposed schedule (which I can't seem to adhere to,lol:) in which I surf around the blogosphere to post mentions of and by members of Soldiers Angels

Work and our holiday plans set back my schedule this time, and I also got involved (I knew this was coming, Terri is nothing if not persistent and patient,lol) in helping to do research for the Living Legends Team . I fell into that backwards, which is generally the way I end up doing things. I had seen the call for people to help do research,and wasn't sure that I could find the time,so I remained silent.

(I was also in the middle of putting together the slide show idea I had come up with for the one year anniversary of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. While that was an honor to put together? let's just say that the time to have an idea like that would probably be at the Beginning of the year, rather than at the End of it!

But, it turned out the way I wanted, which was to honor all those the Blogroll had featured in the past year, and now I have a better idea for what I need to save if I plan to do it again Next year.:)

So, in the midst of that, I made the serendipitous mistake (serendipitous for the LL team:) of coming across something that I knew Terri was looking for, emailed it to her, and then said to myself "oh,no, you know what's coming next!" Sure enough, almost faster than the speed of light,lol, she shot back an email saying "thank you" and then "could you please....?"

Well, yes, I probably could. (and Angels like Terri are so hard to say 'no' to,lol, when they specifically ask:) I received an Enormous amount of help from Angel Janet...Thank You!....and a lot of positive encouragement from other Angels on my first attempts to send out the information after I did my research (which I managed to mess up part of sending it out, par for the course,I guess) All I can say is, for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what a great deal of time and effort goes into what the Living Legends Team does? it was a real eye-opener. I only had 4 names of fallen soldiers to research, and these dedicated Angels who have been doing this have been researching sometimes up to 100 names! I have no idea how they do it all.

And Patti, the 'Head Angel', as always sent an encouraging and uplifting message of support,too. She's just Everywhere, always cheering Angels on. I love that woman!! How can I have any reservations about finding time to do this? when I consider all that Patti does every day?

This is only the second funeral mission we've been able to attend with the PGR, and the funeral was about 40 minutes up the road from us, in Woodstock,VA, in the Shenandoah Valley.

We were the only members to attend in a 'cage',as they call a car, but there were two large groups of bikers who had gotten up at 4 am to come all the way down from Pennsylvania to honor this young man. Another group of bikers came in after we had already gathered at the high school where Pfc. Wilson's funeral was held.

I have a slideshow of a few pictures we took...we didn't take very many (and we also had some glitches with the picture taking,read 'operator error', as in I'm still not proficient at operating the camera)

We stood in the flag line behind the honor guard at the doors, and there were a tremendous amount of people who came to pay their respects.

The plan was for the bike escort to travel to where Thomas Wilson would be buried, on his grandfather's farm, and as we were in a 'cage', we drove down the street to get a drink once the funeral had started. In the store, we saw a notice posted asking the townspeople to show their support of the family by lining the streets, and we decided to stand there on the sidewalk with the people who were already starting to gather.

And the townspeople came. Two elderly ladies were already standing across the street when we first stopped,but they were soon joined bit by bit by more and more people. A young family, a veteran from the VFW, a father and his young son....they came and stood, some holding flags....and they waited for an hour and a half, for the funeral procession to begin passing by.

On our side of the street, we were standing by an older man who said to us that he had come down from another town....a disabled Vietnam veteran, he wanted to honor this young man's sacrifice and pay his respects. He stood with us in the hot sun along with all the others, speaking briefly of his own wartime service and shifting his weight from time to time on the ankle that had been injured in that service.

Others joined us as time went on.....a family group, a lone woman who said she felt that she 'must' stop and do this. A group of bikers stopped for gas, and when one of them came over to ask why so many were standing along the road? they decided to stand there and wait,also.

And when the procession left the high school a half a block away? They were led by the muted thunder of a group of what had to be over 60 motorcycles. The ride captain of this mission had asked riders to turn out in force to honor Pfc. Wilson's sacrifice, and they had.

We held our flags as they went by, and as I looked at the grief stricken faces of those riding by in car after car, young and old alike sharing the same pain-filled and still half-disbelieving look....I blinked back my own tears. For those who had lost a son,brother, grandson, friend....and for a town that came out to say with their presence "We are standing with you here today."

Our country lost another hero, but in the midst of this, I was reminded that this is what is best and brightest about us, about America and Americans.

It didn't matter what anyone's politics were, or their views on the war. They gathered together, and fellow Americans even came from another state, to let the family and friends know "We grieve for and with you for your loss, and we honor this young man's life."

May you rest in peace, Pfc. Thomas Wilson. Your family and friends are inour prayers.

About Me

Wife of an Army vet, daughter of an Army vet, granddaughter of a Navy vet,proud niece of an Army nurse who served in Vietnam,mother of 3 and stepmother to a currently serving Army MP..believe wholeheartedly in supporting our troops and veterans! Grandmother to 2 beautiful boys,love my life:)